*UPDATE: Relating to the IMPORTANT PATIENT NOTICE accessible on this page, Tampa Bay Surgery Center has decided to extend coverage of the identity monitoring services to three years. If you have already enrolled, no further action is required on your part. An additional two years will be automatically added to your service. If you have not yet enrolled, you can use the code provided in your letter, and you will automatically be provided with three years of service.

TAMPA, Florida, June 21, 2017 -- Today, Tampa Bay Surgery Center, ("TBSC") announced that, on May 5, 2017, it was made aware of and managed an unauthorized access of certain information and notified patients whose information may have been included in the impacted database. Although TBSC does not have evidence to suggest that any patient information was misused for purposes of identity theft or to cause financial harm, TBSC has proactively notified patients out of an abundance of caution and to fulfill its regulatory responsibilities.

On May 5, 2017, TBSC learned from law enforcement that certain information related to TBSC patients was posted on a public Internet file-sharing site by an unauthorized party on May 4, 2017, and a Twitter user who claimed to be the unauthorized party who obtained the file included a link to the file. The file has since been removed from the site. TBSC’s investigation into how this occurred is ongoing.

The information at issue that was in the file included full patient name, home address, date of birth and social security number. At this time, TBSC has no evidence to suggest that any information pertaining to medical treatment or physical or mental health or condition was compromised. Further TBSC has no evidence to suggest that any financial account information was compromised. There is no such information in thefile that was posted.

TBSC has sent letters to patients whose information was in the impacted database to provide guidance about how they can protect themselves. TBSC has offered identity theft protection services to affected individuals and encouraged those individuals to regularly check their credit reports and medical bills for possible unauthorized activity, and to immediately contact their institutions to report any suspicious activity.

TBSC’s investigation into this matter is ongoing. The company has made and continues to make changes to processes and procedures to help prevent a similar occurrence from happening again.